


I'm Telling You Now, Aren't I?

by whatTheFuckIsThis



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Heist, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:22:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22949269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatTheFuckIsThis/pseuds/whatTheFuckIsThis
Summary: 5 time Charlie's past was hinted at +1 time she finally told someone
Relationships: Charlie/Behrad Tarazi, Charlie/OC
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. Old Language

**Author's Note:**

> Charlie and Behrad sleep together.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie and Behrad have sex. That's it.

She didn’t mean for it to happen. Sure he was cute, but everyone on this ship was cute. Charlie told herself she wasn’t going to get attached to anyone here. No more attached than she could easily walk away from. If she was being honest, she was already too far deep in the Legends orbit. The second Rayge talked her down from blowing the Legends out of existence she was hooked.

But, more to the point, she didn’t mean for _this_ to happen: Behrad blowing smoke into her mouth, his lips only centimeters from her own. She leaned forward before she could think about how much this decision was gonna suck in the morning. He smelled like weed and tasted like chocolate cake. The flavors of alcohol and cigarette smoke she was so used to tasting were nowhere to be found. For once, after a mission she hadn’t cracked open a beer with Mick or taken a shot of Scotch with Sara and John. She couldn’t remember what stopped her.

He kissed her back, slow at first then faster as he realized he hadn’t dipped into Nate’s stash of hallucinogens instead of his usual drugs. Charlie pushed him down on the futon and the thin mattress shook from the force. A Doritos bag crinkled as the pointy chips dug into his back.

“Maybe we should go somewhere more private,” He suggested, breaking away for only a second before moving to kiss her neck.

“Don’t wanna give the others a show, love?” She whispered into his ear. With the last word, she bit his ear. Or maybe he just hoped that she did and imagined her teeth digging into his skin.

Her voice made him want to stay on a cheap futon that could break under their weight, surrounded by glass panels and pervy teammates with cameras in their pockets. As the thought of Mick blackmailing him with a sex tape for the rest of his life dawned on him, Charlie stood up and led him by the hand to her room.

As soon as Charlie got Behrad into her room, she shoved him down on her bed. She was beginning to like doing that too much. The way his tall lanky body crashed against the mattress and the look of surprise and then relief that washed over his face as he landed on a soft surface. She tore off her jacket and ripped shirt before the meaning of that took hold in her mind.

She moved to stand between Behrad’s opened legs, her hands hooking underneath his knees and pulling him closer. He looked at her like she was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen and she supposed she was. He did always have a thing for Amaya, even if he would never admit it to anyone.

“How do you want me?” She asked him, partly to hear his answer and partly to break the silence.

He stared at her and tilted his head, before answering. “Naked?”

She laughed and leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Which version of me, mate. OG Amaya, your boyhood crush, whichever human got your dick hard for the first time, Nate. You’re fucking a shapeshifter. I can shift into anyone you like.”

He leaned in and kissed her instead of replying. His tongue grazed her teeth and she opened her mouth wider, letting him deepen the kiss. Once he was out of breath and itching to get out of his clothes, he broke away.

“As tempting as that sounds, I just want you Charlie.” He lowered his voice and suddenly Charlie resented that he was still fully dressed. “You’ll be hot no matter who you look like.”

Without another word, she tore off the flannel that he never seemed to be without and the tank top underneath it. His muscles twitched beneath her touch as she felt his stomach and moved to undo his belt. His pants slid to the ground with a thud, followed by his boots, and soon Charlie was the one wearing too much. Behrad fixed that. While she was focused on kissing his neck and exploring newly uncovered areas, he flipped them, pinning her to the bed and stripping her down.

Once she was as naked as he was, he took her arms and pinned them above her head. He had the same look in his eyes as when he was playing one of his shooting war video game things. Charlie always thought that look was cute, his look of determination. Like a child who kept on asking ‘Why?’ with no care for the answer. 

She let him believe he was in control, let him kiss down her body, let him hoover above where she wanted him with a shit-eating grin on his face before she broke. She pushed his head down until she could feel his laugh against her thigh.

“Get on with it, B.” He lifted up his head and the grin returned to his face. Charlie wanted to punch him in the face for that. She nudged his head back down, but he resisted, bobbing back up a little to eagerly for Charlie’s liking.

“Careful, Charlie. I could just walk away right now and leave you like this.” Now she was the one with a grin.

“Nice try, but we both know you’re more desperate than me right now.”

She was right. He was harder than he wanted to admit. He hadn’t known Charlie would do it for him but here he was: kinda stoned, very naked, and incredibly turned on. He gave up on trying to tease his friend and focused on getting her off.

After what felt like hours and several rounds of the two flipping each other on their backs, Charlie sat on top of Behrad. She felt tired, the good kind that led to full nights of sleep and sore muscles in the morning. If her mind was sharper, she would have made a joke about having won their unspoken competition for who topped who but instead she sat back and stared at Behrad.

Looking down at him, she felt a bit of her old self seep through. Two verses in ancient Greek slipped out of her mouth, the once familiar sounds now felt foreign on her tongue.

_Put it away, don’t waste your time,_

_Winter will come on_

_And break the lower sea on the rocks_

_While we drink summer’s wine._

_See, in the white of the winter air_

_The day hangs like a rose._

_It droops down to the reaching hand_

_Take it before it goes._

Behrad looked at her with his dopey smile she knew she’d miss one day soon and asked her a question she couldn’t answer for his safety as much as her own. She kissed him. That was enough to silence him. She laid down beside him and he folded himself into her size and curled around her. She drifted off to the sound of his slowed breathing and the feeling of his curly hair against her fingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like them as friends with benefits. 
> 
> I updated this to fix some grammar mistakes and actually add a poem instead of just vaguely hinting at it. The poem is from this site, it's the one by Horace: https://jacket2.org/commentary/seventeen-ancient-poems-translated-greek-and-latin-thomas-mcevilley.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Old Glory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mick ropes Charlie into a heist. Charlie had a more active role than she expected.

“You in the mood to steal some shit?”

Charlie knew she liked Mick for a reason. She jumped up, her half-finished nachos forgotten. “What are we stealing?”

Mick grinned and nodded for her to follow him. “Something that’s gonna make us rich and some bastard a whole lot poorer.”

Good enough for her.

When they got to the jump ship, Mick handed her a black duffel bag. She opened it to find a pair of black gloves, a gun and holster, an earpiece, and a black jacket with “SECURITY” on the back. He programmed the destination and took the seat up front. Charlie noticed that he was looking oddly formal, well formal for him. He had on a pair of dress shoes and slacks, with a collared shirt and no tie. It was the first time she’d seen him in something other than cargo pants.

“So what’s the plan here?” Charlie asked. She put on the holster and checked the gun magazine before concealing the weapon under the baggy security jacket. The clunky earpiece was a nice touch, she thought. Very retro.

Mick looked over her. “You might wanna shift into someone a little less, you.”

She thought about it for a second before shifting into a security guard she’d seen in England. White male, short cropped hair, a face just a bit too ugly to stand out in a crowd.

“Good,” Mick said as the jump ship landed.

The door opened with a thud and as soon as the pair stepped out the ship turned invisible. They walked past rows of fancy cars parked on a red brick road, towards the ungodly mansion before them. If the sun weren’t shining, she would have thought Mick had taken them to Buckingham Palace with how large and gaudy the house was. Hanging above the front door was a brightly colored sign.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FRED AND LINDA JOHNSON!

WITH SPECIAL GUEST, REBECCA SILVER!

“We’re here to steal this couple’s money. Well, you are. I’m here to steal their money the legal way,” Mick said. “Celebrity appearances.”

“I thought I was the distraction! I don’t know the plan, Mick. You didn’t even tell me what I’m stealing.” She whisper-yelled at him as they walked up the front steps.

He knocked on the door. It was twice her size and probably weighed more than the Kraken himself. He turned back towards her. “You’ll be fine. They keep thousands of dollars of cash and records of all the stocks they own in the upstairs safe. They’re practically asking for it to be stolen. Don’t worry, Gideon’ll walk you through it.”

“That’s right.” Gideon said through Charlie’s earpiece. “Mr. Rory has provided me all the necessary intel for this unsanctioned theft.”

Charlie looked surprised. “Never took you for a master planner, Mick.”

Mick shrugged as the door creaked open.

“Rebecca Silver! Thank you so much for doing this! The Johnson’s absolutely adore your work,” said the woman who greeted them.

“Well I never miss an opportunity to meet a fan,” Mick replied with a genuine grin on his face.

“Come in, come in. The speeches are just about to start. You and your bodyguard…”

“Gary Green,” Mick said. If it wouldn’t have blown her cover, Charlie would’ve smacked Mick for that. Gary was the last person she wanted to be confused with.

“Well you and Gary are just in time to grab a plate. I hear they have the good kind of caviar this year.” She winked. Charlie hoped she was making fun of rich people food, instead of assuming they would have standards when it came to caviar. She let them inside the mansion.

Mick nodded knowingly at Charlie, before grabbing a glass of champagne off a passing tray and heading straight to the buffet. She needed to act fast, before the Johnson’s ran out of food and Mick got bored of being a distraction. 

“Alright Gid, let’s do this thing.”

She looked around the entry way. A security guard was guarding the staircase and a handful more were standing near every doorway. She couldn’t see any cameras, not that she had to worry much about being caught. Just to be safe she went into the bathroom and changed her facial features slightly so she couldn’t be linked to Rebecca Silver. 

“You’ll need to get up those stairs,” Gideon said.

Charlie approached the guard blocking the stairs. “Boss says you’re needed in the reception area.”

The guard looked at Charlie for a second too long for comfort before nodding and walking to the nearby room with a huff. She scurried up the L-shaped stairs and out of view of the party guests and other security guards. It was quieter upstairs, but the décor was just as gaudy and performative as downstairs.

“Third door on the right. There will be a guard at the door. Use whatever means necessary to subdue them.”

“Alright girl, calm down. I’m not gonna kill the guard.”

“Mr. Rory’s orders-” Charlie tuned the AI out as she approached the guard.

“Hey bud,” She said with a peppy tone that sounded fake even to her ears. “How’s your shift going? Anything exciting going on?”

“No one’s supposed to be up here, you should know that…” The guard said looking at Charlie closely. Now that Charlie was up close with a guard, she noticed a few inconsistencies. Her earpiece was black instead of the other guard’s standard issue white. Her jacket didn’t have her name on it, while the other guard’s jacket named her as Sarah Anderson. “Who are you? I don’t recognize you.”

“Jackson, Andrew Jackson.”

“Wrong choice, Charlie,” Gideon said in a dry tone. If Gideon could laugh, Charlie knew the AI would be bent over and rolling on the floor.

“I’m new,” Charlie said, trying to dig herself out of the hole she fell face first into.

“Hmm.” Sarah hummed. “We’re you at last week’s training with Rodriguez?”

“Yep, Rodriguez is a great instructor.”

Sarah tapped her earpiece and spoke into it. “Second floor. We’ve got an intruder, send back up.” She tapped it off and looked at Charlie. “I taught last week’s training. And, FYI, Rodriquez is a terrible instructor.”

Before Charlie could react, Sarah had her gun drawn and pointed at Charlie’s chest. “Hands on your head.”

Charlie smiled. She stepped forward until the barrel of the gun was pressed against her stomach. “You don’t wanna do that, mate. It’d be a waste of bullets and it’d ruin a perfectly good posh party.”

Sarah hesitated and in that second, Charlie knocked the gun out of her hand and onto the floor. She shoved the other woman back and her head slammed against the wall. Dizzy but still conscious, Sarah fumbled for something on her belt. Charlie threw a right hook and used the momentum to force Sarah up against the wall once more. She pinned the security guard’s hands to the wall and threw the newly acquired taser on the floor next to the gun.

Charlie heard footsteps rushing up the stairs and made a quick decision. She ripped the keychain and handcuffs off Sarah’s belt. As she clasped the cuffs around the half-conscious woman’s wrists and took Sarah’s form, three security guards came into view, guns drawn and pointed in her direction. 

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Charlie said as Sarah. “I got the intruder.”

“What is this?” One of the guards said, looking at the two identical women.

“I don’t know, some kind of meta or something. Walked up here looking like a dude and then took my form. Just keep them hidden until the party ends.” The three guards nodded and took the real Sarah down a back set of stairs. She made note of that for later.

“Can’t believe that worked,” Charlie said to herself.

“On to the next step,” Gideon reminded her. “Get inside. The safe with the necessary documents will be somewhere inside the room.”

Charlie tried the first key on the overcrowded keychain, then the second, then the third, until finally she heard the lock click and the door give way. The room was smaller than she imagined it would be for all the money it held. It was setup like an office with a desk, dressers, bookcases, but no safes in sight.

She found the cash first. It was kept in briefcases that had been poorly hidden in a dresser under false bottoms. For paranoid rich people, they sure did a shit job at hiding their money.

She didn’t stop to count the money. Gideon kept reminding her how long she’d been in the safe room. According to Mick’s research, if she spent more than fifteen minutes inside it might look suspicious. She had eight minutes left and she still needed to find the stock records.

“Look for a small safe with no keypad,” Gideon offered. “The Johnson’s keep their records behind biometric scanners.”

“Did Mick have a plan B, if I didn’t agree to come with him today?”

“No, he knew you’d come.”

“That’s almost sweet,” Charlie said as she found a safe that matched Gideon’s description. After Gideon sent her a picture of the couple for reference, she shifted into the wife and then the husband as the screen prompted her for both of their fingerprints and eyes. The lock disengaged and she found hundreds of pages of documents.

“Gid, did Mick happen to have an exit plan for me?” She asked, thinking about how to carry multiple briefcases and hundreds of loose sheets of paper.

“Yes, but you need to hurry. You’ve already been here for fourteen minutes.”

Charlie gathered up her loot and walked out of the room as inconspicuously as possible. Gideon guided her through the house. One door down she found a duffel bag for the loot that Mick had left her, somehow getting it in the upstairs bathroom. She used the back stairs to reach the back exit. Gideon gave her the security code to override any silent alarms and before she knew it, she was back at the jump ship and back to her old self.

“What now Gideon? Do we wait until Mick gets finished or can I get out of here?” She plopped herself down in the front seat and kicked her feet up.

“Your part of the heist is done. All that’s left is getting Behrad to sell the stocks, clean the money, and deposit it into the Legends bank account.”

Charlie had several questions. Why did a team of time travelers have a bank account? How did Behrad know so much about money laundering? Did that make him hotter or more of a nerd? But she was too tired to think about any of them.

She plotted a course for the Waverider. When she got back, she plopped the stack of papers on Behrad’s desk and patted him on the back, happy to be done with her work.

“Good luck mate,” She offered pitifully in response to his horrified look as she left the lab and headed for the galley to grab a beer or three.

Mick returned to the ship as her third beer was starting to take effect. He sat down next to her with an ungodly amount of sandwiches for a man who had just come from a well-catered party.

The galley was quiet except for the sounds of Mick chewing as Charlie finished her drink.

“I haven’t had that much fun since I stole the loom-” She stopped herself. “Since I stole a family heirloom and ran away from home.”

“How much did you sell it for?” He asked through a mouthful of ham and cheese.

“I didn’t sell it. I destroyed it. It was too powerful for anyone to have.”

He nodded like he understood, or maybe he just couldn’t be bothered to ask any follow-up questions, and went back to eating. Charlie sat in the galley with Mick until the memory of her first home had once again faded into the back of her mind and only the satisfaction of a day well spent remained.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be Gay. Do Crimes. Steal From Rich People. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Old Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie and Nate are on a mission when they bump into a man Charlie loved lifetimes ago.

Nate and Charlie are placed on recon a few blocks away from any monster sighting. Sara gave them strict orders not to run into the fight if trouble comes their way. They were only meant to figure out what type of creature dropped on the Anatolian peninsula in 10000 BCE. As soon as they got into the field, Nate started rambling about the history of modern-day Turkey. Or maybe he’d started as soon as Sara had dismissed them, she had a habit of tuning him out.

Nate took a deep breath and Charlie immediately rolled her eyes. If he started another sentence with ‘fun fact,’ she was gonna get real comfortable with murder. “Did you know-”

“Do you ever shut up mate? Fuck, I lived through this time and I know less of this nonsense than you. Just, focus on the mission so we can get out of this place.”

She started walking towards the latest sighting. It was near a bathhouse she used to frequent when she lived here. She wondered if anyone she knew was going to get murdered by a mystery creature or maybe they’d all left after she’d left them.

“Damn how old are you, C?” He started counting on his fingers. One, two, three, four, he’d run out of fingers before he even got close.

“Old.” As they rounded a corner, Nate collided with a man.

“I am so sorry.” Nate said in the local language. “I am so clumsy, aren’t I C?”

The man collected himself and looked up at Charlie. She recognized him. She never thought she’d see him again, and certainly not like this. Maybe she’d get lucky and he wouldn’t recognize her. He couldn’t know she was-

“Clonius? Is that you?” Shit. Her aura was too magnetic.

“Clonius? Who’s Clonius?” Nate looked back and forth between the two. For a man who constantly bragged about having a PhD, he was such an idiot. “Wait, were you-”

“Hey Sabas, fancy seeing you here.” She needed to get out of there. He couldn’t know that she was still alive. Someone would come looking for him and torture him until he told them anything they wanted to hear. Why didn’t the Legends carry those memory flashers anymore?

Luckly, she had a very timely out. A crash rippled through the streets, shaking the buildings around them and causing a mild panic. The creature was close.

“I’ll handle this,” She said to Nate, “Just, keep him safe.”

“But Sara said-”

“Sara can kiss my ass,” She said, already halfway to the crash site.

Sabas chuckled and sat down against a wall. He patted the ground beside him and Nate took a seat. “He always was too noble for his own good.”

“Not the word I word use for Charlie, but…” Nate was still trying to wrap his head around Charlie having a life here. She’d told them all so little about her past and now that he had a window into it, he was more confused than ever.

“I knew from the moment I met him that he was it for me. He had a kindness to him that I’d never seen before. An unrelenting passion for life and living. Aphrodite took hold before I even knew his name.”

“Char- Clonius and you were…?”

“Lovers.”

Nate looked at the greying man in front of him. His skin was weathered and wrinkles were starting to grow around his eyes and mouth. Even now, sitting on the ground in the shadow of a building with dust billowing around them, Nate could see how handsome he was. While Charlie was a forceful type of kind, fighting for a better world, Sabas was the quiet type of kind. The kind a fighter could come home to, lay their head on their lap, laugh until their failings were forgotten and their worries kept at bay.

“What happened, man? It seems like you two were… tight.” That was putting it lightly, but Nate couldn’t think of the right way to describe the love of someone’s life.

Sabas paused for a moment and in that silence, they could hear yells and thuds. The sounds were farther away than when the fight began. Charlie hadn’t checked in yet but Nate assumed she was fine. She was tougher, apparently even tougher than he knew.

“When I met him, he was running. He wouldn’t tell me from who or what or where but when we were together, he was calm. He freed our town from the warlord who had taken it over and released it to us. ‘Democracy’ he called it.” Sabas laughed and a calm smile passed over his face. “What a way to make an entrance.”

He fumbled for the string around his neck. He rubbed the small piece of decorated wood attached to it. The lettering that Nate assumed was once readable was now faded beyond recognition from too many years of being Sabas’s lifeline.

“A month later he kissed me behind the bathhouse and I haven’t kissed another since. We lived together for years. We were happy and I thought it would last forever. But the fates had other plans,” He laughed to himself, making a joke that Nate didn’t understand. “His sisters came for him one night. They tore him from our bed. He just kept shouting and shouting, begging them to let him stay, saying they didn’t need him, if they could just let him stay. But they didn’t listen. They let him say goodbye, a gift he said they would never let him repay, and then he was gone.”

Nate put his hand on Sabas’s shoulder. He’d lost loves but nothing as permanent as Sabas had. He wondered what could be so horrible that could keep Charlie away from a love like this. He wondered how many other lovers she’d lost or had to leave behind to keep safe. He wondered when she would be able to stop running.

“I can’t imagine what losing him was like.”

Sabas nodded. “It was hard, my friend.”

Nate hugged Sabas loosely, until the other man leaned in and hugged back. He felt Sabas shaking in his arms, crying without tears. They stayed like that until footsteps approached them.

“Alright Nate. The magical creature is captured and back on the ship. Sara says it’s time to ship out.” Charlie slowed as she saw the scene before her. The man she’d loved centuries ago was crying in the arms of her new friend and it broke something deep inside her.

When her sisters ripped her from his arms, she made a choice to suppress the part of her that he loved best. Her capacity to love, to care was dimmed and all she had left was the drive to escape. Never again would she be captured by them. When she escaped the grasp of her sisters for the second time, she vowed to never settle, never return to her past, and never look back.

Looking at her broken lover, she wondered, for the first time, if she made the wrong decision. Maybe if she wasn’t a mess, she could have stayed with Sabas and fought for a life together. She could have laid him to rest once his thread was snipped and mourned his loss as so many humans had done before her.

Nate let go and got up. Sabas took his outstretched hand and lifted himself up.

“I’m gonna go. It was nice meeting you Sabas.” He turned to Charlie and lowered his voice. “Take as much time as you need. I’ll tell Sara to wait.”

She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything more.

“So, this is the new you,” Sabas said, meeting Charlie’s eyes. He looked sad and she wished she didn’t know why.

“You like it?”

“Clonius, I will love you in every form and through every life.” She wanted to reach out and stroke his face. To take away every wrinkle and line of worry until he looked exactly as she remembered. After lifetimes of getting close to humans, she’d never learned how to get over losing them.

She shifted into the man she was when they were together, aged up to match Sabas. Clonius stood before him and Sabas reached out before he could stop himself. He traced her bushy eyebrows and large ears. He ruffled her shaggy hair and laughed like he was young again. He looked down at her lips and kissed her.

“I’ve missed you. It’s a weird thing, to miss someone for longer than you knew them.”

She smiled against his neck. “I’m sorry Sabas. My sisters they- I couldn’t-”

“It’s okay, love, it’s okay. I knew what I was getting into with you. A fate. A shapeshifter. An immortal.” He looked at her and she could tell that he was seeing her, not the man he used to know so well. “I’ve missed you so much, but I’ve lived so much more. I’m a better man for having met you and I hope you’re a better man for having loved me.” She nodded and he kissed her forehead. “Your friends are kind people and your mission is good. After all your years of living and suffering, you are still the same fiercely kind man.”

She sniffled and tried to hold back tears. One slipped through before she could stop it and he wiped it away. She kissed him one more time and then pulled away. They said a silent goodbye and he walked away before she could ask him to stay. As she walked to the rendezvous point, she shifted back into Charlie, shedding her old life bit by bit until all that remained was the feeling of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing endings, fuck they're fun. 
> 
> The pronouns are a bit wonky in this chapter. I wanted to capture the fact that Charlie does actually change gender through out time. When she knew Sabas, Charlie was a guy and now, with the Legends, she's a woman. It's messy but hopefully it works. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Old Habits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie finds herself on an unfamiliar continent, alone, and losing herself. She meets a woman who helps her feel tethered and better than she's felt in a while.

It was a quiet night in the windy city she found herself in. Her long hair flew around her face as she walked away from the tattoo shop past the stacked houses that looked like they would tumble down at any moment. Her skin rippled, adjusting to the new ink that covered both arms and the base of her neck. Monsters from all around the world bleed together into one angry snarling creature on her skin. If she tried hard enough, she could feel herself becoming that creature, something strong that would never need to run away from anyone, whether human or god.

She had hoped running halfway around the world would be enough to put her mind at ease, but she still found herself glancing over her shoulder and feeling for the knife tucked in her waist band. Instead of being comforting, the monsters seemed to be laughing at her.

They mocked her for her lack of powers and lack of strength. _You are meant to put fear into the hearts of humans_ , they said, _instead you pretend to be one of them and still they don’t accept you. What will it take for you to realize you have no place among them?_

Their words swam through her head and made her feel more alone than the empty streets did. She couldn’t stand listen to her worst thoughts being made real, so she ran.

She broke into a sprint, running until her lungs burned and she forgot what led her to this unfamiliar continent, worlds away from anyone who knew her. She ran past more houses and barking dogs. Her hair whipped across her face, blinding her for a moment. Her foot caught on a rock and she collapsed against the dirt road. Something sharp dug into her face and she chuckled as the blood began to color her face. Charlie stopped her body from healing the cut as she rolled onto her back to look up at the clear night.

She was too wrapped up in trying to find familiar constellations in the sky to notice a woman watching the scene from her doorstep. The woman laughed and called out to Charlie. Her voice was warm and her laughter was the most welcoming thing Charlie had heard in weeks.

“I thought magical creatures were supposed to be smarter than that.” She joked and took a drag from her wood pipe. “And uglier, much uglier.”

The sweet-smelling smoke drifted over to Charlie and numbed her mind. If she weren’t so messed up she might’ve wondered how this woman knew her human appearance was a farce but, in her state, she only wondered if the woman would taste as sweet as the smoke smelled.

The woman invited her in, and Charlie felt herself being pulled towards the small house. The woman handed her the pipe and introduced herself as Evita. Charlie did the same, giving the name she’d been using since she arrived on this continent, before inhaling. A warmth spread through her body and an unfamiliar sense of calm made its home in her mind.

Evita watched her closely, as if she wanted to see the exact moment this stranger felt the same drugged calm she did. Charlie watched her right back. She had the same ageless quality Charlie noticed in all magical creatures she had met during her travels. A few strands of grey were mixed in with her thick black hair and her brown eyes looked like they’d seen centuries of life and death. She was beautiful, so beautiful that Charlie had to tell her.

Evita laughed at the cliché statement and took the pipe back. Charlie missed the weight in her hands. She reached out to pluck it from Evita’s mouth but before she could, Evita pulled Charlie in close.

Inches away from the other woman, Charlie could hear Evita’s warm voice running through her mind but her lips were still. The voice in her head was confident and sexy. Evita’s smile changed into a smirk as the silent words got dirtier and dirtier. She knew what she was doing and, fuck, it was working for Charlie.

Evita leaned in closer, her lips flirting with Charlie’s ear, and whispered, out loud this time. “Have you ever made love to a succubus?”

Charlie whined and a shit eating grin grew on her face. She’d heard about succubae, but never slept with one, never even met one. Fuck, she was glad she met this one.

She leaned back and threaded one hand through Evita’s thick hair. She locked eyes with the succubus and licked her lips before whispering, “Have you ever made love to a god?”

Evita’s eyes dilated. She took in a sharp breath. Her eyes said enough, just as Charlie knew her own had.

“Two can play at that game, my darling,” Charlie said. She moved closer to Evita, finding her neck and making her mark on the other woman. Evita gasped and Charlie wished she could hear that beautiful sound every second of the rest of her life.

Evita spoke, before both of them were unable to speak in anything but soft sighs and subtle moans. “You do know what a succubus does to their lovers?” She sounded almost nervous as if, even as Charlie was unable to break away from her neck, the god might pull back in horror. “We steal their energy and suck them dry so we can live.”

Charlie didn’t think there was anything Evita could say in that moment that would make her pull away, but that admission, that admission wasn’t nearly enough. She spoke into Evita’s neck, not wanting to pull away for a second, “I have more than enough energy to spare, and darling, I’d give up years just for this night with you.”

Evita laughed. Charlie had turned up the sappiness to almost an unbearable degree, either unconsciously or from Evita’s drugs, she couldn’t tell. But the succubus didn’t seem to mind. Evita, finally, led her into the back half of her home. She sat down on the bed laying on her floor and pulled Charlie down with her. She collapsed on the other woman with a laugh and their limbs twisted together. They found each other’s lips and kissed like it was the only thing keeping them alive. Evita teased off Charlie’s shirt and traced the new tattoos. Her fingers followed their moment. And then they followed her fingers. Before both of their eyes, the tattoos of monsters transformed into a beautiful woman who bared a striking resemblance to Evita. The tattoo moved its way down Charlie’s body, from her arm, to her chest, to her stomach, to below her pants.

Evita flipped them over, towering over the god. She moved to make her tattoo’s path a reality. She peeled off the rest of Charlie’s clothes and then did the same with her own. In her nakedness, Charlie noticed the slight chill of the warm night air. Before she could begin to shiver, Evita moved down her body, sliding her hands across Charlie’s stomach.

Her mouth touched the spot where Charlie’s body needed it most. She started gently, using only her mouth, until Charlie begged her for more. She picked up her pace and used her fingers to bring Charlie to the edge. Charlie cried out as Evita pulled away. Her curses did nothing more than bring a wicked smile to her torturer’s face and, after what felt like too long, Evita returned and pushed Charlie over the edge.

Evita took a deep breath in and Charlie felt herself growing tired, as the succubus fed off her. After a few tired seconds, Charlie perked up. She smiled at the shocked look on Evita’s face and took the opportunity to flip them over, returning to her original place back on top.

Charlie mirrored Evita’s movements, sliding down her body, hovering over her, taunting her before moving back up to kiss her lover.

“Charlie, if you don’t-”

“Patience, darling. I’m not nearly cruel enough to leave you like this.”

She moved her hand down Evita’s body and thrust her fingers in. Evita yelped and sighed and squealed. Charlie offered her none of the gentleness she had received, and Evita thanked her for it. She came and Charlie reveled in her pleasure. She kept going, until Evita’s throat went hoarse and Charlie’s arms went stiff.

They separated for the first time in hours and almost immediately reconnected. Evita pulled Charlie closer, so her head rested on the succubus’s chest.

“Now I know why you don’t have neighbors,” she joked. Evita laughed and kissed the top of Charlie’s head. She was quickly becoming addicted to that sound and it scared her to admit it.

“Go to sleep, god of Ancient Greece. You’ve done more than enough for one night,” Evita said, with a smile in her voice that rocked Charlie gently off to sleep.

***

Charlie woke up to the sun streaming in across her face and Evita’s body pressed firmly against her own. Evita’s nose tickled her neck and Charlie swore she could feel Evita’s lips pressing soft kisses into it. Charlie sat like that for a moment, thinking of all the times she’d done this before. Her body and mind were used to waking up in a stranger’s bed but staying there was new. She felt safe here, with Evita. She turned her monsters into muses and made her think she could live a life so much better than the one she had. Evita knew what she was and wanted her regardless, despite that, because of that. In the quiet of the morning, Charlie allowed herself to dream of a life with this beautifully strange woman. She would wake up in her arms every morning, to gentle kisses and soft _I love you_ ’s. They’d walk along the rocky beach, hand in hand, singing songs in languages everyone else had long forgotten. When a stranger stumbled across their home, they’d take them in, into their home and into their bed, if that’s what they wanted. And when life grew stagnant or fear crept in, they would move across the galaxy, comforted by the fact that they had time enough to kill.

But she knew that wasn’t an option for her. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Her sisters were still out there, still hunting her, even after the old gods were turned into nothing more than children’s stories. They were still unbeatable, at least by her.

And so, Charlie slipped out of Evita’s grasp and out of her bed. She pulled on her clothes, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and walked away, into the arms of a place that could never really feel like home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having fun playing with the pre-determined endings and heartbreak that Charlie's story lends itself to. I got way into flowery language in this chapter, but who cares. I had fun with it. 
> 
> Thanks for readingI

**Author's Note:**

> I like them as friends with benefits and I support anytime any of these idiots get laid in canon. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.


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